502 



NATURE 



[June i6, 1921 



At the request of the American Geographical 

 Society, Sir John Scott Keltie has prepared a short 

 report on "'The Position of Geography in British 

 Universities " (Research Series No. 4). Sir John 

 Keltie, in addition to giving some details for each 

 university, reviews briefly the history of geographical 

 education in Great Britain, and shows that considerable 

 progress has been made in this country since his well- 

 known report on the subject in 1885. At that date geo- 

 graphy was practically unrecognised in British univer- 

 sities, while at present there are only two universities 

 in England and one in Scotland in which there is no 

 separate department in geography. Despite this pro- 

 gress, much remains to be done. In many universi- 

 ties the departments are understaffed, and the sub- 

 ject has a hard, and not always successful, fight to 

 find its due place in the curricula. There is diversity 

 of opinion regarding the scope of the subject and 

 methods of treatment. In a few universities the sub- 

 ject is in both the faculties of arts and sciences, but 

 in some it is only in arts. The addition of degrees 

 in commerce has resulted in increased demand for 

 geography, but on somewhat restricted lines, which 

 cannot do justice to the subject. Sir John Keltie 

 thinks there is need for geography to limit the field 

 of its operations and to avoid the embarrassment of 

 overcrowding. 



The Ministry of Finance, Egypt, has recently issued 

 a Blue Book embodying the programme and policy of 

 the Egyptian Government in regard to the development 

 of the oil resources of that country. The chief point of 

 interest in the publication is the defence put forward 

 by the Under-Secretary of State for Finance, Mr. 

 E. M. Dowson (under whose name the book appears), 

 in support of the policy of State boring for oil deter- 

 mined upon in 1919. In other words, the justification 

 of the expenditure of public money on petroleum 

 mining in Egypt is pleaded in view of the growing 

 scarcity and enhanced price of oil fuel as a measure 

 of internal economy and as an attempt to further the 

 scientific development of the oil resources of the 

 country. State enterprise in such a risky business 

 as oil-finding is usually to be deplored, but there are 

 certain factors to be recognised in the political 

 elements here engendered which not only warrant 

 some co-ordinated efforts to deal with a difficult situa- 

 tion, but also make it essential that some authorita- 

 tive scheme should be adopted to stabilise the oil 

 industry of the country. The present policy includes 

 the reservation of certain likely petroliferous areas for 

 the Government as a result of a preliminary geological 

 survey ; such areas include Abu Durba, the west coast 

 of Sinai, several isolated areas in northern Sinai, two 

 smaller areas on the west coast of the Gulf of Suez 

 at Ras Dib and Zeit Bay, and a larger area at Abu 

 Sharr adjoining the better-known Hurghada field. 

 The location of a commercially productive field in any 

 one of these areas would justify, at any rate from a 

 Government point of view, all the expenditure entailed 

 in obtaining-, transporting, refining, and distributing 

 the oil. Failure, on the other hand, will be severely 

 criticised, not only at home in Egypt, but also abroad. 

 The scientific results accruing from the borings, how- 

 ever, must have considerable value in the task of 

 NO. 2694, VOL. 107] 



assessing the oil potentialities of the country, but ulti- 

 mately it will be for the Egyptian people to pass 

 judgment on a policy the merits or demerits of which 

 as yet remain to be substantiated. 



In the Radio Review for May Mr. T. L. Eckersley 

 concludes his inquiry as to whether the errors in the 

 apparent bearings of radio stations from which mes- 

 sages are received at night can, in whole or in part, 

 be explained by the existence in the atmosphere of an 

 outer conducting layer which he calls "the Heaviside 

 layer," at the under-surface of which the electric 

 waves are reflected. He thinks that the existence at 

 night of such a reflected wave-train must now be taken 

 as proved, and proposes to determine by measurement 

 whether there is any component of the electric force 

 horizontal and perpendicular to the plane of propaga- 

 tion. If this proves to be the case, the surface of 

 the conducting layer at which reflection takes place 

 cannot be taken as horizontal. Mr. Eckersley is dis- 

 posed to think that in many cases the reflection is of 

 this kind. The influence of the layer in the daytime 

 is less marked, as it extends down to the ground and 

 produces absorption of the waves propagated through 

 it. In the night it has a more or less sharp under- 

 boundary, at which reflection can take place and the 

 waves are confined almost entirely to the layer of air 

 underneath. 



The February issue of Radium contains a report of 

 the Leonard prize for research recently instituted by 

 the American Rontgen Ray Society. The prize, 

 which commemorates the name of Dr. C. Lester 

 Leonard, a victim to X-rays, is for the best piece of 

 ongmal research in the field of X-rays, radium, or 

 radio-activity, and is of the value of 1000 dollars. 

 Ihis competitive award is open to anyone living in 

 the western hemisphere. In the same issue notice 

 is given of a correspondence course in the physics of 

 radio-activitv suitable for the needs of biologists and 

 surgeons as well as of physicists. The course is being 

 arranged by Dr. N. E. Dorsey, of Washington, con- 

 sultant to the National Bureau of Standards. 



Dr. C. E. K. Mees, director of the research labora- 

 tory of the Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., 

 contributes to the Journal of the Franklin Institute 

 of May 21 an excellent summary of the present know- 

 ledge of the structure and many of the properties of 

 photographic films before and after use. Concerning 

 the unexposed emulsion, the silver bromide particles 

 are crystals belonging to the regular system. They 

 show evidence of strain, perhaps because there is ab- 

 sorbed in them some other substance, such as silver 

 iodide, soluble bromide, or gelatine. The sizes of the 

 crystals are determined during the formation of the 

 silver salt when making the emulsion, and their dia- 

 meters range from ultra-microscopic particles below 

 oiyu to occasional grains up to lo/x. The curve re- 

 lating the sizes of grains to the number of each size 

 present is probably closely related to the "character- 

 istic curve " of the emulsion. Grains of the same 

 size may vary in sensitiveness, and the sensitiveness of 

 grains of different sizes in the same emulsion may 

 vary from group to group. A geometric relation be- 

 tween the sensitiveness of grains of different sizes is 



